In the first place, without mental prayer the soul is without light.
They, says St. Augustine, who keep their eyes shut cannot see the way
to their country. The eternal truths are all spiritual things that are
seen, not with eyes of the body, but with the eyes of the mind; that
is, by reflection and consideration. Now, they who do not make mental
prayer do not see these truths, neither do they see the importance of
eternal salvation, and the means which they can adopt in order to
obtain it. The loss of so many souls arises from the neglect of
considering the great affair of our salvation, and what we must do in
order to be saved. "With desolation," says the prophet Jeremias, "is
all the land made desolate: because there is none that considereth in
the heart." [12: 2] On the other hand, the Lord says that he who keeps
before his eyes the truths of faith ------that is, death,
judgment, and the happy or unhappy eternity that awaits us------shall
never fall into sin. "In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou
shalt never sin." [Ecclus. 7: 40]

St. Bonaventure also says that mental prayer is, as it were, a mirror,
in which we see all the stains of the soul. In a letter to the Bishop
of Osma, St. Teresa says, "Although it appears to us that we have no
imperfections, still when God opens the eyes of the soul, as He usually
does in prayer, our imperfections are then clearly seen." He who does
not make mental prayer does not even know his defects, and therefore,
as St. Bernard says, he does not abhor them. He does not even know the
dangers to which his eternal salvation is exposed, and, therefore, he
does not even think of avoiding them. But he who applies himself to
meditation instantly sees his faults, and the dangers of perdition,
and, seeing them, he will reflect on the remedies for them. By
meditating on eternity, David was excited to the practice of virtue,
and to sorrow and works of penance for his sins. "I thought upon the
days of old, and I had in my mind the eternal years . . . and I was
exercised, and I swept my spirit. [Ps. 76: 6]

. . . When the soul, like the solitary turtle, retires and recollects
itself in meditation to converse with God, then the flowers -----that
is, good desires-----appear:
then comes the time of pruning, that is, the correction of faults which
are discovered in mental prayer. "Consider," says St. Bernard, "that
the time of pruning is at hand, if the time of meditation has gone
before." For [says the Saint in another place] meditation regulates the
affections, directs the actions, and corrects defects.

2. IT DISPOSES THE HEART TO THE PRACTICE OF VIRTUES

Moreover, without meditation there is not strength to resist the
temptations of our enemies, and to practice the virtues of the Gospel.

Meditation is like fire with regard to iron, which, when cold, is hard,
and can be wrought only with difficulty. But placed in the fire it
becomes soft, and the workman gives it any form he wishes, says the
venerable Bartholomew a Martyribus. To observe the Divine precepts and
counsels, it is necessary to have a tender heart, that is, a hart
docile and prepared to receive the impressions of celestial
inspirations, and ready to obey them. It was this that Solomon asked of
God: "Give, therefore, to thy servant an understanding heart." [3 Kings
3: 9] Sin has made our heart hard and indocile; for, being altogether
inclined to sensual pleasure, it resists, as the Apostle complained,
the laws of the spirit: "But I see another law in my members, fighting
against the law of my mind." [Rom. 7: 23]

But man becomes docile and tender to the influence of grace which is
communicated in mental prayer. By the contemplation of the Divine
goodness, the great love which God has borne him, and the immense
benefits which God has bestowed upon him, man is inflamed with love,
his heart is softened, and made obedient to the Divine inspirations.
But without mental prayer his heart will remain hard and restive and
disobedient, and thus he will be lost: "A hard heart shall fare evil at
the last." [Ecclus. 3: 27] Hence, St. Bernard exhorted Pope
Eugene never to omit meditations on account of external occupations. "I
fear for you, O Eugene, lest the multitude of affairs [prayer and
consideration being intermitted] may bring you to a hard heart, which
abhors not itself, because it perceives not."

Some may imagine that the long time which devout souls give to prayer,
and which they could spend in useful works, is unprofitable and lost
time. But such persons know not that in mental prayer souls acquire
strength to conquer enemies and to practice virtue. "From this
leisure," says St. Bernard, "strength comes forth." Hence, the Lord
commanded that his spouse should not be disturbed. "I adjure you . . .
that you stir not up, nor awake my beloved till she please." [Cant. 3:
5] He says, "until she please;" for the sleep or repose which the soul
takes in mental prayer is perfectly voluntary, but is, at the same
time, necessary for its spiritual life. He who does not sleep has not
strength to work nor to walk, but goes tottering along the way. The
soul that does not repose and acquire strength in meditation is not
able to resist temptations, and totters on the road. In the life of the
Venerable Sister Mary Crucified, we read that, while at prayer, she
heard a devil boasting that he had made a nun omit the common
meditation, and that afterwards, because he continued to tempt to her,
she was in danger of consenting to mortal sin. The servant of God ran
to the nun, and, with the Divine aid, rescued her from the criminal
suggestion. Behold the danger to which one who omits meditation exposes
his soul! St. Teresa used to say that he who neglects mental prayer,
needs not a devil to carry him to Hell, but that he brings himself
there with his own hands. And the Abbot Diocles says that "the man who
omits mental prayer soon becomes either a beast or a devil."

3. IT HELPS US TO PRAY AS WE SHOULD

Without petitions on our part, God does not grant the Divine helps; and
without aid from God, we cannot observe the Commandments. From the
absolute necessity of the prayer of petition arises the moral necessity
of mental prayer; for he who neglects meditation, and is distracted
with worldly affairs, will not know his spiritual wants, the dangers to
which his salvation is exposed, the means which he must adopt in order
to conquer temptations, or ever the necessity of the prayer of petition
for all men; thus, he will give up the practice of prayer, and by
neglecting to ask God's graces he will certainly be lost. The great
Bishop Palafox in his Annotations
to the letters of St. Teresa, says: "How can charity last, unless God
gives perseverance? How will the Lord give us perseverance, if we
neglect to ask Him for it? And how shall we ask Him without mental
prayer? Without mental prayer, there is not the communication with God
which is necessary for the preservation of virtue." And Cardinal
Bellarmine says, that for him who neglects meditation, it is morally
impossible to live without sin.

Some one may say, I do not make mental prayer, but I say many vocal
prayers. But is necessary to know, as St. Augustine remarks, that to
obtain the Divine grace it is not enough to pray with the tongue, it
is necessary also to pray with the heart. On the words of David, "I
cried to the Lord with my voice," [Ps. 141: 2] the holy Doctor says,
"Many cry
not with their own voice [that is, not with the interior voice of the
soul], but with that of the body. Your thoughts are a cry to the
Lord. Cry within, where God hears." This is what the Apostle
inculcates: "Praying at all times in the spirit." [Eph. 6: 18] In
general,
vocal prayers are said distractedly with the voice of the body, but
not of the heart, especially when they are long, and still more
especially when said by a person who does not make mental prayer; and,
therefore, God seldom hears them, and seldom grants the graces asked.
Many say the Rosary, the Office of the Blessed Virgin, and perform
other works of devotion; but they still continue in sin. But it is
impossible for him who perseveres in mental prayer to continue in sin:
he will either give up meditation or renounce sin. A great servant of
God used to say that mental prayer and sin cannot exist together. And
this we see by experience: they who make mental prayer rarely incur the
enmity of Good; and should they ever have the misfortune of falling
into sin, by persevering in mental prayer they see their misery and
return to God. Let a soul, says St. Teresa, be ever so negligent, if it
persevere in meditation, the Lord will bring it back to the haven of
salvation.